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Bimal Ghosh: Did Anyone Know Who Houghton Was?
Bob Houghton’s comments on the need to awaken Indian football haven’t found many takers, and the first to do so is Air India coach Bimal Ghosh.
21-Jun-2009 8:25:24 AM
On Thursday, the Englishman stated
that during the last three-to-four years of his tenure, he hasn’t seen the game
move forward as those around him are unaware of the big picture. He went on to
mention that even a Jose Mourinho or Guus Hiddink wouldn’t be able to change
Indian football in the current scenario.
“He shouldn’t compare himself with Mourinho or Hiddink, or even speak about himself in the same league as them. Before he came to India, did anyone know who Houghton was? “When he first came, he spoke about the World Cup dream – 2014, now 2018. How many new players has he taken in the squad,” questioned Ghosh, who was surprised with the absence of Subhash Singh, Ishfaq Ahmed and Sangram Mukherjee from the national squad.
Houghton had spoken of the need to improve infrastructure and the lack of the same, which was the motive behind his team travelling to Dubai and Spain for a camp and play friendlies later this month. He added that India’s current FIFA ranking was good, given the present scenario.
“Infrastructure is important, which I agree, but there are teams who don’t have it and are better than India. Look at Nigeria and Senegal. What about Iraq? Poor countries also play football.
“The solution is to have Academies. The All India Football Federation (AIFF) must ask all I-League teams to come up with an Academy. They must help the teams to set it up and make them accountable, as in you have to come out with so many boys after ‘x’ number of years. I had spoken about this in the last meeting,” said the former Maharashtra coach.
Ghosh opines that for any development to happen, it must happen at the grass root level as that would strengthen the base.
“In India, the basics aren’t in place. Full time academies are the only way out to get out of this problem. The teams, who claim to do youth development have a lot of overage players and that doesn't help either. The authorities will have to invest as the clubs wouldn’t want to as there is no return for them.
“The AIFF, state associations and the clubs have to come together to uplift Indian football. You can’t keep blaming each other and expect that things would change.”
The Air India coach believes that the state associations have to push harder and to some extent follow the Goan model.
“Amongst all the states, Goa is doing good as they have several academies. Kerala, Mumbai and Bengal are passionate about football but the academies are missing.
“To some extent, the lifestyle of the people in Goa also helps them. A kid would study for some time and thereby, even drop his studies and play football. People are not that ambitious in terms of money and are content and so, pursue their love for football. In other parts of India, that isn’t the case,” added Ghosh.
Rahul Bali.
“He shouldn’t compare himself with Mourinho or Hiddink, or even speak about himself in the same league as them. Before he came to India, did anyone know who Houghton was? “When he first came, he spoke about the World Cup dream – 2014, now 2018. How many new players has he taken in the squad,” questioned Ghosh, who was surprised with the absence of Subhash Singh, Ishfaq Ahmed and Sangram Mukherjee from the national squad.
Houghton had spoken of the need to improve infrastructure and the lack of the same, which was the motive behind his team travelling to Dubai and Spain for a camp and play friendlies later this month. He added that India’s current FIFA ranking was good, given the present scenario.
“Infrastructure is important, which I agree, but there are teams who don’t have it and are better than India. Look at Nigeria and Senegal. What about Iraq? Poor countries also play football.
“The solution is to have Academies. The All India Football Federation (AIFF) must ask all I-League teams to come up with an Academy. They must help the teams to set it up and make them accountable, as in you have to come out with so many boys after ‘x’ number of years. I had spoken about this in the last meeting,” said the former Maharashtra coach.
Ghosh opines that for any development to happen, it must happen at the grass root level as that would strengthen the base.
“In India, the basics aren’t in place. Full time academies are the only way out to get out of this problem. The teams, who claim to do youth development have a lot of overage players and that doesn't help either. The authorities will have to invest as the clubs wouldn’t want to as there is no return for them.
“The AIFF, state associations and the clubs have to come together to uplift Indian football. You can’t keep blaming each other and expect that things would change.”
The Air India coach believes that the state associations have to push harder and to some extent follow the Goan model.
“Amongst all the states, Goa is doing good as they have several academies. Kerala, Mumbai and Bengal are passionate about football but the academies are missing.
“To some extent, the lifestyle of the people in Goa also helps them. A kid would study for some time and thereby, even drop his studies and play football. People are not that ambitious in terms of money and are content and so, pursue their love for football. In other parts of India, that isn’t the case,” added Ghosh.
Rahul Bali.
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